Managing your time in the GMAT test

Students preparing for the GMAT exam very well know that the GMAT exam consists of four sections:

• Analytical Writing Assessment
• Integrated Reasoning
• Quantitative Reasoning
• Verbal Reasoning

The duration of the exam is 3 hours and 7 minutes.

If you know how to manage your time in the test so that you can dedicate the required amount of time to all the four sections, then it is half the battle won. But is time management for the GMAT exam easy? Here are some tips to help you out.

 Focus on the fixed structure to make your strategy

The good thing is that the structure of the GMAT exam is fixed and does not change. The number of different kinds of questions also does not change. Use this to your advantage to calculate and determine the average time you will dedicate to each question. This will be easier when you attempt practice tests, more on that later.

When doing your test, you should attempt to divide your time equally for the different questions. When doing your practice tests, look at the clock after attempting every five questions. If you have taken more than 10 minutes, learn to speed up. This practice will help you keep track of the time and teach you how to pace yourself.

Do a self-assessment

In order to learn better time management during the test, use the clock as your guide. Clock the time you are taking to solve the different types of questions and what kind of questions tend to take up most of your time. This will help you plan on how to manage your time during the actual test.

Track the time taken to answer every question

During your preparation for the GMAT, keep a dedicated tab on the time you take to answer every question. You can log the time taken to answer every question with different levels of difficulty. You can try different approaches to time-management and discover what works best for you. For example, when dealing with the reading comprehension section decide if you want to read the passage first or the questions first.

Improve your reading speed

You can do this by improving your reading skills by practicing regular reading. Read material that is like the content you will tackle in the exam. Such reading resources can be publications such as National Geographic, The Economist, etc.

Reading extensively will especially help non-native speakers of the English language as this will improve comprehension and the speed of reading. The bonus point is it will help you in managing your time in every section of the GMAT.

Extensive practice

We cannot reiterate enough of regularly practicing full-length GMAT tests. When you practice under the test duration time, you will get a sense of your time management, assess your strengths and weaknesses, the sections where you are taking more time and sections that are easy to finish quickly. Practicing under timed conditions will give you these insights and help you manage your time efficiently in the actual test.

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